


Pawprints in the Rain

by thelittlenyx (Nyx_Aki)



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Gen, Petfic, Vicchan Lives, Vicchan-centric story, don't worry he doesn't....die
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-14
Updated: 2018-01-14
Packaged: 2019-03-04 18:21:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,864
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13370463
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nyx_Aki/pseuds/thelittlenyx
Summary: The sun has descended, and with it the remnants of the day. Night has risen, with it the moon, and a light drizzle consumes the Outside in gentle sound and water.His little Yuuri has not returned, and Vicchan is worried sick.(a story of searching, and being found)





	Pawprints in the Rain

In a moment of quiescence, Vicchan waits by the wide window and watches.

The sun has descended, and with it the remnants of the day. Night has risen, with it the moon, and a light drizzle consumes the Outside in gentle sound and water.

His little Yuuri has not returned, and Vicchan is worried sick.

 

******

 

“Vicchan!”

Nineteen-year-old Mari sticks her head in the main room of the inn, where guests repose with bottles of sake and recline in front of the television to watch football, and if Minako Okukawa is here, figure skating. Today there are fewer people than usual, due to the rain, but no dog.

“Vicchan! Dinner!”

Hiroko Katsuki slides open the kitchen partition. A faint aroma of frying _tonkatsu_ drifts out; it must be for Yuuri, staying late at the ice rink. “Check Yuuri’s room,” she advises.

“I already did!” Mari complains. “He’s not there at all.”

“Hmm.” Her mother is worried, but the duties in the kitchen take precedence, and she cannot leave them unattended. “I’ll help you look- give me five minutes!”

_“Hai, okaa-san.”_ Mari turns away, moving towards the unused banquet hall.

“Vicchan! Where are you? Vicchan!”

 

******

 

His paws are wet with rain and his curly pelt is sodden, but Vicchan is determined, and his mind consumed with nothing but his little master, and so he will not shirk.

Although it is dark, the moon provides her guiding light and the streetlamps their blurry pools of luminance, and it is these the tiny poodle follows in the dim and the rain. His nose is of little use at the moment, as the shower has washed away all traces of scent.

_I will find my master._

A clatter in an alley distracts him- _could it be my human is lost in there?-_ and after a moment’s pause, he turns away from the light and heads into the darkness of the alley.

 

******

 

The sound, it turns out, is not his Yuuri but a black-and-white stray cat looking for food and shelter amidst the bins.

The two creatures- the little red toy poodle and the lanky, wary, feline- lock eyes in the dimness and remain there, unsure of their next moves.

Vicchan speaks first. “Have you seen my master, Miss Cat?”

Watching him out of slitted amber eyes, the cat determines he is not a threat, and decides to entertain him some. “How does your master look like, little dog?”

Vicchan thinks. “He is small, like me, and he is warm. He smells a little of pork, and sometimes of ice, but mostly of home. He is kind and bright, and he likes to be hugged and licked. Sometimes he is lonely, and then he looks sad, but if he sees me he’ll be happy.

“He isn’t home, and I’m afraid he’s lost, and he’ll be sad. That’s why I’m looking for him.” Vicchan finishes.

The cat lowers herself elegantly into a crouch, looking for all the world like a sphinx, regal amongst the dustbins and the wet bricks. “I used to have a master once,” the cat says, eyes distant as she reminiscences. “She was kind, until she left.”

“Left? Left you?” Vicchan is confused; he has never known his master, or _any_ master, to do such a thing.

“She put me in a box, and took me far, far away from home, so that I could never come back.” the cat hisses. “Now I don’t have a master. I live alone, I hunt alone. Such is life. You’d better forget your master too, little dog, because he’ll leave you too one day, mark my words.”

Vicchan is aghast- what is she _saying?_ “My Yuuri will _never_ leave me!” he barks, and the sound echoes round the alley, dripping with moisture and damp. “He loves me, and he’ll never throw me away like your master did with you!”

The cat stretches, studying the poodle, who is trembling with indignation. “You’re young, little dog.” she says ruefully. “You don’t understand humans- we never will. They have their own whims and ways, and we animals are caught up in them like flies in a storm...if they see in the future that leaving us is better for them, that’s what they’ll do. We can never understand them, for we can’t see the future, and all we see are our masters.

So forget him, pup. Forget him, and spare yourself the pain.” The cat arches her back, turns to go. “Open your eyes, and learn that there is more in the world than our masters. Like I did.”

She springs away in the rain on soundless paws, leaving Vicchan lost and confused in the shadows of the alley.

 

******

 

The hand in which he holds his phone is trembling as Yuuri clumsily disconnects.

“Yuuri? What’s wrong?”

Noticing his sudden distress, Yuuko skates her way to the edge of the rink, where Yuuri is scrambling to untie his skating shoes.

He looks up, eyes filled with panic.

“It’s Vicchan. He’s been missing for three hours.”

 

******

 

The words of the cat still echo in the alleys of his mind when Vicchan shakes himself firmly and continues on his search for his human.

By now, the rain has lessened slightly. Small, thin, raindrops patter unevenly against the sidewalk as the dying rainclouds slowly dissipate in the night.

Vicchan is cold, sodden through, and utterly miserable.

_I need my master._

A scurrying in the corner of his vision has him perking up, and the rain has washed clean all scents, so he doesn’t know who it is until he turns and sees a scruffy pelt, cunning eyes like tar, and a frantically twitching nose.

For a split second, both creatures freeze as their eyes meet: the rat startled to be caught, Vicchan momentarily consumed by the primal urge to chase down a creature smaller than him.

But his mission overtakes his instinct, and he blurts, “Have you seen my master?”

The rat- a shoddy, sly creature- blinks, and wonders if the dog in front of him has taken leave of his senses. He quickly recovers, though, and pins Vicchan with a shrewd gaze. “Master, eh? How does he look like?”

As he did with the cat, Vicchan thinks. “My master is smaller than most humans, but he is big enough to hold me tight. He is kind, and loyal, and he is like the sun- he is warm and bright. He likes balls, and he is happy when I bring them back to him. Sometimes he goes away, but he always comes back to me, and he never leaves me in the night.”

“Never leaves you, eh? So why are you out here?” the rat inquires.

Vicchan stutters. “He- he’s never usually out this late, and he might be lost. I’m looking for him.”

The rodent eyes him with an unreadable expression, assessing the innocent little dog before him. “I have no master.” the rat says eventually. “I was born in the dark, I matured in the dark, I live and hunt and the dark. I know no master, nor these words of _loyalty_ and _kindness_ you speak of.”

“Aren’t you lonely?” Vicchan wonders in spite of himself.

“Lonely?” The rat pulls back his lips in a grin, exposing wicked teeth. “You can’t love what you never had. Besides, man is our mortal enemy, and our kind has known nothing but blood and death at his hands. Who knows, your _master_ whom you declare to love might even hurt you too. Isn’t it better to be alone?”

_“What?”_ If the cat had spoken things unbelievable, the words the rat had uttered were of pure blasphemy. Vicchan’s fury rises, and a growl rips out of his throat, huge and threatening. “My Yuuri would _never_ hurt me!”

Intimidated by the sudden burst of anger, the rat scuttles backward in preparation to flee. “Believe whatever you want, pup.” it sniggers. “Humans are like the sky- capricious and unpredictable. Do you think you can understand the minds of man, if you can’t even understand your _own_ situation?”

Vicchan pauses, and the rat senses his confusion.

“How can you look for someone lost, if you are already lost?”

With that, the rat vanishes, a shadow melting into shadow.

 

******

 

Vicchan walks alone in the night and the amidst the disappearing rain, weighted down with rainwater and a stone in his heart.

The rat was right. He was lost, utterly and desperately so. The drizzle had swept away all traces of his tracks and the scent of home, and all he had to leave behind were his pawprints, disappearing in the rain.

Had Yuuri left him?

Was such a thing even possible?

_I’m lost._

_please, don’t leave me._

A distant calling, as far away as the gulls over the sea.

Vicchan wonders if his master will ever cross something as wide as the sea to find him.

_“Vicchan! Victor!_ Vicchan!”

 

Lost, and then found.

 

Many, many years later, when time and wear has dulled claws and fur and memory, Vicchan will remember this with a searing clarity- his little master, kind and warm, bright as the sun, smelling of ice and home, spreading his arms in the shifting darks and lights of the night- ever constant, ever there.

And Vicchan will remember his joy so bright it hurt, the happiness of both boy and dog, as he leaped into the embrace of his little Yuuri, shaped so perfectly to keep him close.

Time will pass, as will the rains, and countless sunsets and moonrises will come and go, and Vicchan will remember the words of the cat, and the rat, and the moment he and Yuuri found each other, in a rainy night by the sea.

 

******

 

The years have come and gone, and Yuuri is not home.

Sitting by the window in quiet repose, Vicchan watches, and waits, for him to return as he has unfailingly done over the years.

This time, however, he does not come home.

Dogs do not have a sense of time passing- they envision the tomorrows and the todays in one long span of time. Instead, they count in separation and reunion.

Vicchan cannot count time, or days- he does not know it has been nearly five years since his master last walked out of the door.

What he does know is that wherever he goes, his little Yuuri will return to him, always.

Vicchan is a little afraid, sometimes. He senses it, deep within his body, the approaching dusk of his soul. He worries, that by the time he does return, the dusk would have sunk into full night.

The words of the cat and the rat, so long ago, still echo faintly in his mind sometimes. Words spoken from hearts turned bitter, hardened in the dark and the loneliness. But Vicchan is older now, and wiser.

_I’ll come back, Vicchan. Alright? I promise. Wait for me, and be good. Take care of Oto-san, and Okaa-san for me. I’ll see you soon._

So he curls up on Yuuri’s bed by the window, and gazes out at the shifting clouds and blossoms on the trees, and he waits for his little master to come back home from beyond the sea.

**Author's Note:**

> “take care of him.” Vicchan whispers, later on.  
> in the dead of night, Makkachin wags his tail.  
> “I will.”


End file.
